Okay cousin Karl, if Social Security is not a failure, why not let people opt out? If it is such a success, people would love to participate. Why should a supposedly free society force workers into a government funded retirement plan against their will? The whole idea is anti-liberty. I’ll make you a deal. You can keep every penny of what I have contributed over the last twenty or so years. Take that pile of money in my ‘account’ and have a big party with it. Stop taking money from my paycheck and instruct my employer to send his ‘matching contribution’ to me. I’ll sign an agreement relinquishing any claim on future Social Security benefits. Offer this option to everyone and see what a wonderful success the people financially supporting this legalized theft think of it. As long as Medicare and Social Security exist, we are not a free people.
The BS element comes from the fact that the funding has been commingled with general revenue. But in truth there is no way to set it aside. Where do you put the surplus? Certainly not into government bonds. If we were still on the gold standard, into gold.